Which class do you prefer, the Akira or Luna?

[Borg Queen]

The Akira was designed as a much more militaristic vessel than usual. Very similar in design to the Klingon Battlecruiser. With multiple topedeo launchers contained in a dedicated weapons pod and two launchers on the starboard and port sides of the saucer. Two sets of impulse engines, one set on the back and sides of the saucer and other set in the back of the catamarans. The secondary hull is directly attached under the saucer with the deflector. The catamarans, pylons, and engines give cover to the aft where shuttes and attack craft can safely enter.

The Titan was supposed to be a return to peaceful exploration. With teeth though. It was an enhanced science/combat hybrid to explore the Gamma Quadrant. A more traditional hull layout but with the engines blocking the secondary hull and a dedicated sensor pod above the saucer instead of being away on pylons on catamarans.

I know for myself I prefer the Luna Class as it better represents the ideals of the Federation but can more than defend itself and its interests. But the Akira is a kick ass battleship which is sometimes needed. They complement each other well.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I always felt the Luna was way too unfairly compared against the Akira. It has similar design aesthetics and visual queues, but if anyone is going to talk about rip-off's, they need to rationalize why the NX-01 looks even more absurdly like the Akira than the Luna does.

I love Sean Tourangeau's designs and general artistic style, including and particularly the Luna, but the Akira has always been my favorite, just behind the TMP Refit, of all the canonical designs.

Akira, hands-down.

 

[thribs]

I just assumed the designer in universe of the Akira was a NX fan and made his own, updated version of it.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Well, sure, but my point is that the Luna was unfairly panned as being an Akira rip-off (to the point that I think that's why Sean eventually left TBBS), when there is a much more egregious example of in-universe plagiarism demonstrated. I say this with infinite respect to Doug Drexler and the rest of the ENT design team. They were pushed into doing it this way. In fact, I remember something about them saying to just go ahead and use the Akira design as-is for the NX. I'm glad that Mr. Drexler and the rest had the ability to at least move some pieces around without making it an exact duplicate, like the suits (Berman?) originally wanted.

 

[Dukhat]

I am not a fan of either design, and here's why.

Akira: When the ship first premiered in FC, I initially liked it (and the three other designs created by Alex Jaeger), mostly because I'm always happy when they introduce a new starship class in Star Trek. However, over time there were things about the designs which started to irk me. With the Akira in particular, I didn't like how the nacelles were so angular in comparison to other ships that were supposedly contemporary to it. Then it started being debatable as to just when the ship was produced. The low registry indicated that it was an older ship, but it had components that looked like they came from the newer Sovereign class. Then apparently the producers of Star Trek at the time had such a hardon for the ship that they wanted to use it (completely unchanged from its appearance in FC and DS9) as the NX-01 in ENT, and it was only thanks to Doug Drexler that he was able to change it around to what we eventually got, as @137th Gebirg stated above. Then this happened:

Luna: I'm not sure how many entries Pocket Books received from fans who sent in designs for the Luna class when they had their Titan Design contest, but I've always felt that Torangeau's design isn't remotely original. It looks like a cross between a Sovereign and an Akira (which muddles the age of the Akira even more), and from the front view, the similarity to the Akira is quite blatant. Now before someone retorts with 'but PB had certain guidelines as to how they wanted the design to look,' I have the novel in question which has the design contest rules, and nowhere does it say anything about how the ship was specifically supposed to look, other than perhaps wanting it to be around the same size as the Voyager or something along those lines. Don't get me wrong; I'm happy for Torangeau that he won the contest, and there's nothing inherently wrong with his design (other than my opinion of its unoriginality), but it simply would not have been my choice were I the one making the contest. I happen to want originality to my starship designs, and I simply don't see that in the Titan design.

(I will admit that I'm also a bit biased in that I've always felt that the 'Titan' as mentioned in ST: Nemesis was meant to be a reference to the Olympian Gods, not the moon that those gods were named after like how the novels interpreted the name. Therefore, I'd always envisioned the Titan as a huge ship worthy of being named after gods, not a small Akira/Sovereign mixture.)

 

[137th Gebirg]

Valid points. And yes, it ultimately comes down to personal preference.

I just always liked the fact that the Akira was supposed to have like 15 or 20+ torpedo tubes or some-such, along with a thru-deck carrier architecture for rapid launch and landing operations of smaller attack craft - all heretofore unheard of in any Starfleet vessel. It was clear that she was designed to be a much-needed BIG stick in the fleet to answer the Borg presence and other existential threats to the Federation during the time it was conceived.

A platform to make the Klingons, Romulans and other more hostile empires to do a double-take and maybe re-evaluate their strategies against Starfleet for the first time... ever.

 

[Borg Queen]

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Doug Drexler said it best!

It's all the same fleet. Some design aspects get recycled and some designs stay relatively stable. At first the Nx-01 was too Akira derivative to me till I analyzed the design and read up on the design process. Now, I find it awesome!

 

[Richard S. Ta]

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Doug Drexler said it best!

It's all the same fleet. Some design aspects get recycled and some designs stay relatively stable. At first the Nx-01 was too Akira derivative to me till I analyzed the design and read up on the design process. Now, I find it awesome!

He gave TPTB what they wanted and satisfied the need to adhere to the aesthetic of a prequel in one stroke.

"This is an Akira, but not the one you expected."

I love the NX-01.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Akira is nice and smooth, Luna is bulky and awkward in comparison.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I prefer the Akira-Class though just discount the ridiculous amount of torpedo launchers.

 

[t_smitts]

I've mentioned before that I think having the Luna's nacelles connected closer to the back has the unfortunate effect of making the ship look more compact that it should. I think if the nacelles connected closer to the front (think of the Centaur for reference), I think it would make the ship look longer and more graceful.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I prefer the Akira-Class though just discount the ridiculous amount of torpedo launchers.

Damn, that's the best part about it!

I personally think it's the peak of awesomeness that a Klingon or Romulan would take one look at the Akira (in barely-veiled concern) and exclaim, "Humans built THAT?!?"

 

[valkyrie013]

Akira first .. I like the Luna bit not as much as the Akira.

 

[F. King Daniel]

All Star Trek ships have the exact number of torpedo launchers the current story needs. Remember the Enterprise sprouting 72 in Into Darkness? Or Klingon bird of prey having aft-firing ones when the plot demands?

 

[137th Gebirg]

Oh, yes, but that was all done after the fact. As you say, as the plot requires. The Akira, however, was specifically designed to deploy a death blossom from day one. No ex-post-facto with that one.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Oh, yes, but that was all done after the fact. As you say, as the plot requires. The Akira, however, was specifically designed to deploy a death blossom from day one. No ex-post-facto with that one.

Yet we never saw her fire any more than any other ship at any one time. It's like Voyager's second warp core and computer core, or the Defiant's landing gear. The art people designed it in, but the writers never knew/cared.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Damn, that's the best part about it!

I personally think it's the peak of awesomeness that a Klingon or Romulan would take one look at the Akira (in barely-veiled concern) and exclaim, "Humans built THAT?!?"

When one launcher can fire dispersal pattern sierra and launch 5-6 torpedoes at one time then having 15 seems like serious overkill.

 

[Unicron]

I am not a fan of either design, and here's why.

Akira: When the ship first premiered in FC, I initially liked it (and the three other designs created by Alex Jaeger), mostly because I'm always happy when they introduce a new starship class in Star Trek. However, over time there were things about the designs which started to irk me. With the Akira in particular, I didn't like how the nacelles were so angular in comparison to other ships that were supposedly contemporary to it. Then it started being debatable as to just when the ship was produced. The low registry indicated that it was an older ship, but it had components that looked like they came from the newer Sovereign class. Then apparently the producers of Star Trek at the time had such a hardon for the ship that they wanted to use it (completely unchanged from its appearance in FC and DS9) as the NX-01 in ENT, and it was only thanks to Doug Drexler that he was able to change it around to what we eventually got, as @137th Gebirg stated above. Then this happened:

For my part, I've seen some fan works having the Akira, Steamrunner and similar classes as being early TNG era (2340s-2350s) along with some of the W359 classes like the New Orleans and Freedom, which share Galaxy class elements. Thus in this context, features like the Akira and Saber nacelles are sort of an interim design between the movie era and the TNG era, with some of those attributes also being used later for designs like the Sovereign. I personally like this chronology for my own head canon, but YMMV.

Luna: I'm not sure how many entries Pocket Books received from fans who sent in designs for the Luna class when they had their Titan Design contest, but I've always felt that Torangeau's design isn't remotely original. It looks like a cross between a Sovereign and an Akira (which muddles the age of the Akira even more), and from the front view, the similarity to the Akira is quite blatant. Now before someone retorts with 'but PB had certain guidelines as to how they wanted the design to look,' I have the novel in question which has the design contest rules, and nowhere does it say anything about how the ship was specifically supposed to look, other than perhaps wanting it to be around the same size as the Voyager or something along those lines. Don't get me wrong; I'm happy for Torangeau that he won the contest, and there's nothing inherently wrong with his design (other than my opinion of its unoriginality), but it simply would not have been my choice were I the one making the contest. I happen to want originality to my starship designs, and I simply don't see that in the Titan design.

I remember feeling kind of the same way when the Titan first came out, as it not only uses a lot of Akira components but has an overall similar configuration. I've kind of warmed to it a bit more since then, as it's hardly the first such design and I can see where Starfleet wouldn't necessarily want to change a lot of components from an already successful design. If I had the design skills myself I'd probably have used a more original approach, but sadly I'm not that skilled. I can work with the final version.

 

[The Wormhole]

This thread reminded me of the rather amusing situation regarding the Titan novel Fortune of War, in which the cover was supposed to be an image of the Titan, but somehow they mistakenly used an Akira class ship instead. It wasn't until the cover image was revealed to the general public that this mistake was noticed, at which point they just barely had time fix it. They did, and the published version had the proper Luna class Titan, though from what I hear the effort to make a new cover involved some quite literal eleventh hour type stuff.

 

[Borg Queen]

(I will admit that I'm also a bit biased in that I've always felt that the 'Titan' as mentioned in ST: Nemesis was meant to be a reference to the Olympian Gods, not the moon that those gods were named after like how the novels interpreted the name. Therefore, I'd always envisioned the Titan as a huge ship worthy of being named after gods, not a small Akira/Sovereign mixture.)

I thought the Titan was a Galaxy Class myself till the novels came out.